Real Journalism Is Dying In Gaza With UK Help.

Right, so following the events of October 7th 2023, Israel has, as we all full well know by now waged a genocidal war on Gaza, killing over tens of thousands of Palestinians, including at least 208 journalists, the figure quoted by the Gaza Media Office, with the Committee to Protect Journalists, the CPJ placing the figure now at over 230. Just in the last 24 hours alone, two more journalists—Hossam Shabat and Mohammad Mansour have been targeted and had their lives ended by Israeli forces, adding to the deadliest conflict for journalists recorded in modern history.
The UK media and political establishment have played a direct role in enabling these depraved acts and have had the finger of blame firmly pointed at them for it too, though not by our own pliant client mainstream media figures, too often part of the problem themselves as well through their silence and lack of solidarity with their Middle Eastern counterparts. By echoing Israeli propaganda, denying the existence of journalists in Gaza, and providing military intelligence through spy flights, Britain has helped paint a target on the backs of the Palestinian people, including those reporting the facts from on the ground.
Our woefully inept Foreign Secretary David Lammy late last year went as far as claiming there were "no journalists in Gaza", effectively giving Israel a free pass to target the press further, being able to point to Lammy’s words as justification for what they have done and are still doing. We rely completely on these people risking their lives, too many having given their lives to get the facts out, but with the government denial, mainstream media looking away, there are far too few in the West telling the stories others are literally dying to tell, so is the UK complicit in the targeting of journalists in Gaza? Well it’s pretty difficult to say no.
Right, so the genocide of Gaza being enacted by Israel since the night of October 7th 2023 has been the Deadliest War for Journalists in Modern History
According to the CPJ, more journalists have been killed in Gaza in 16 months than in any other major conflict in recorded history, including the 6 years of World War II and this is not accidental, it is deliberate targeting and once again we have seen it happen this week, with the killing of Hossam Shabat and Mohammad Mansour.
Hossam Shabat was a 23 year old correspondent for Al Jazeera and was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. His death marked the 208th journalist killed in Gaza since October 2023 according to the Gaza Media Office.
Before his murder, Shabat had prepared a final message, published posthumously in the event of his death and it is both haunting and a call to action. It reads:
‘If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed—most likely targeted—by the Israeli occupation forces. When this all began, I was only 21 years old—a college student with dreams like anyone else.
For the past 18 months, I have dedicated every moment of my life to my people. I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury. I slept on pavements, in schools, in tents—anywhere I could. Each day was a battle for survival. I endured hunger for months, yet I never left my people’s side.
By God, I fulfilled my duty as a journalist. I risked everything to report the truth, and now, I am finally at rest—something I haven’t known in the past 18 months . I did all this because I believe in the Palestinian cause. I believe this land is ours, and it has been the highest honor of my life to die defending it and serving its people.
I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.’
Now I have never claimed to be a journalist, I’m just a mouthpiece if you ask me, but I will take that message to heart, I will keep on speaking out because those that do too often call themselves journalists in the UK and elsewhere in the West, they aren’t fit to have shined this kids boots. He was a journalist and we owe to him and 208 or more others to keep talking about this and never stop until Palestine really is free.
Whilst our mainstream media remains utterly silent, Israel immediately smeared him, claiming he was a sniper terrorist, a tactic it has used repeatedly to justify killing journalists and certainly helped by narratives such as that that has come from David Lammy, saying there are no journalists in Gaza, but if he two brain cells weren’t so desperately fighting over third place, he might have realised we’d know nothing of what is going on without there being journalists there, but more on that fools actions in a moment.
Just hours earlier, another journalist, Mohammad Mansour, was killed in a property in Khan Younis by Israeli forces, along with his wife and son without any prior warning. A deliberate, targeted killing of a whole family, because one of them dared to report on the atrocities Israel commits in Gaza every, single day and again, no mainstream media coverage.
Even journalists working for Western outlets are not safe though. Hussam al-Titi, a reporter for ABC News, was killed in an Israeli strike a few days earlier, again, alongside his wife and children, again Israel targeting not just journalists, but their families as well, war crimes all, depraved absolutely, where is the outcry? Nowhere to be seen. His death should have sparked outrage, especially amongst Western journalists given he actually worked for one of their stations, yet no major Western network demanded accountability. Where Middle Eastern outlets made much if him being a reporter, ABC itself were quick to point out he was a former employee of theirs until 2014, they couldn’t even bring themselves to criticise Israel for it, what they posted was little more than an obituary.
Lets come back to David Lammy shall we, you might not want to I appreciate, but alas we must because last November, Lammy made the shocking claim that: “There are no journalists in Gaza."
This statement deservedly earned him widespread condemnation, was utterly false and reckless and stupid, because it gave Israel the perfect excuse to escalate its targeting of journalists. If British officials claim there are no real journalists in Gaza, then Israel can point that out, dismiss them all as "Hamas operatives" and well that is exactly what they’re doing.
Whilst we’re on the subject of the government acting in a manner that is endangering the lives of Palestinians and amongst them journalists, Declassified UK has been keep track of and reporting that British spy planes have been flying over Gaza repeatedly, gathering intelligence for Israel and have refused to answer questions about what exactly they are up to, with Starmer even visiting the Cypriot RAF base these flights are taking off from, RAF Akrotiri and telling those stationed there we cannot speak about a lot of what you do. Well why not Keith? What could they be doing that is so secret? The implications that can be drawn however are that the UK is directly assisting Israel’s targeting operations, that British intelligence may have been used in strikes that killed Palestinian civilians in Gaza and potentially journalists along with that and the Labour government has continued this covert support, despite claiming to oppose Israel’s war crimes.
If the UK truly cared about press freedom, it would ground these flights immediately. Instead, it seemingly helps Israel target those protected by international law, certainly the potential is there and in the latest example of this, a tweet from Declassified UK’s Matt Kennard yesterday stated that:
‘Last week, Keir Starmer sent a huge A400 military transport plane from UK base on Cyprus to Tel Aviv. The A400 can carry 116 troops and a 81,600lb payload. It arrived as Israel escalated its annihilation campaign in Gaza. Someone has to stop this genocidal British government.’
What was that plane all about then Starmer? We can see the flight log, that is where Kennard got this information, it’s publicly available, what are you doing in our name? Are you conducting flights that make the UK complicit in genocide? Why won’t you answer that accusation?
Worst of all in my view though has been the complicity shown by British so-called journalists. While real journalists in Gaza are risking their lives and being slaughtered, major Western outlets have repeatedly downplayed the killings, using language such as caught in the crossfire, or calling buildings getting bombed being hit by explosive projectiles, referring to the Israeli hostages held by Hamas as hostages, but the many more Palestinian hostages get called prisoners even when most are held without charge. They have also repeated Israeli narratives ad nauseum, the Gaza health ministry is the Hamas run health ministry, implying it is less trustworthy, but Israeli health reports are gospel, despite Israel blatantly being propped up by Western powers. Even when their own people have been killed like Hussam al-Titi, it gets downplayed, doing a disservice to their memory.
This is a betrayal of journalism. If Western reporters were being killed at this rate, there would be global outrage, but because the victims are Palestinian, their deaths are treated as somehow more acceptable. It isn’t, its inhumane to think so and damn those driving this instruction amongst news outlets.
The Targeting of Journalists is a War Crime and fundamentally this comes to the crux of the issue, since there’s no crime if nobody knows about it, perhaps this is the thinking behind the miserable excuses for journalists we have in the western mainstream media.
Under international law, deliberately killing journalists is a war crime. The CPJ, UN, and human rights groups have all condemned Israel’s actions and yet on top of the increasing number of questions the UK needs to answer, Starmer and Co refuse to call for sanctions on Israel, the Labour government is still arming Israel and there is a complete lack of will for any demand for accountability when it comes to Israel.
The UK stands accused of complicity in Israel’s killing of journalists. The Gaza Media Office stated, in a piece by Al Jazeera, Hossam Shabat’s employer, that:
‘In a statement on Monday, the GMO said it “strongly condemns the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation” and called on press advocacy groups to denounce “these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in Gaza”.
The GMO said it held Israel and its main ally, the United States, as well as “the countries participating in the genocide, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, fully responsible for committing this heinous crime”.’
This impunity must end, the providing of political cover by this government for Israel must end, the military support and spy flights must end, the media complicity and silence is also complicity, must end.
Those responsible for complicity must be held to account and we must know who they are, no ifs or buts.
Meanwhile if it isn’t violating international law by killing journalists, Israel is destroying hospitals again, notably in recent days the only dedicated cancer hospital in Gaza was utterly destroyed, a unit that saw up to 30,000 people a year for cancer treatment, the claim being that it was a Hamas command centre, but IDF soldiers filming themselves inside the hospital blew those excuses apart, as once agan Israel’s lies get exposed, but only in outlets that will bother to tell you about it. Get all the details of that story in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit like, share and subscribe if you haven’t already done so, so as to ensure you don’t miss out on all new daily content as well as helping support the channel which is very much appreciated and I will hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.